“It appears the bus experienced a tire failure”, Lt. Jeff Gordon of the State Highway Patrol told WRAL.
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Photos of the crash scene showed a large bus that was damaged heavily on the driver’s side after apparently crashing into an overpass column.
Images from the scene showed the side wall of the bus had been nearly sheared off, and injured people were lying on the ground.
A Rock Hill South Carolina football team has been involved in a fatal accident on I-74 near Rockingham North Carolina. Per WNCN, both teams are comprised of junior college students who attend two-year schools that don’t field football teams.
USA 74 is expected to remain closed into Saturday night as troopers investigate the wreck, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.
The website for the Ramah Academy team lists six games this season, but no opponents for four of them.
42 people are hospitalized with varying degree of injuries. A 9-year-old child who volunteers as a water boy was sitting at the back of the bus when the tire blew out.
Both eastbound and westbound lanes of the US 74 bypass were closed almost 10 hours after the crash.
“We as a school community are devastated”, Copeland said. “It is unclear at this time if Clinton College has an actual football team or if their students participate in an off-campus athletic football team”, said the NCSHP. Clinton College is a small, traditionally black, college where most of the students know each other. He said he got several calls about the crash Saturday and it was news he wasn’t ready to hear.
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The Ramah Academy team held open tryouts around Rock Hill in the spring and summer. They immediately pulled over after witnessing the crash to help tend to the injured.
